KABUL: The wrestling mats were spattered with blood, the sports bags and water bottles still strewn across the floor yesterday, hours after a double bombing ripped through the Maiwand sports club in Kabul, killing at least 26 people, reports AFP. A regular training session on Wednesday afternoon turned into a massacre when a suicide bomber shot dead a young, unarmed guard at the entrance before blowing himself up near the scores of wrestlers, some of whom were as young as 10.

An hour later a car packed with explosives detonated outside the club, apparently targeting reporters and emergency workers who had gathered at the scene. "Everyone was covered in glass and pieces of shrapnel, and shouting for their loved ones.